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Thursday, March 2, 2017

Cooking is Cheaper than Therapy: Minestrone Soup

There's still a few weeks of winter to make a big pot of hearty soup, and especially this filling minestrone soup. I love this easy and forgiving recipe of Italian origin, as you don't have to worry about perfect measurements. It's friendly enough to change out vegetables and beans, such as exchanging green beans for cannellini beans, adding a few leaves of baby spinach or Swiss chard, and even playing with different shapes of pasta like shells, rotini, or orecchietti. If you prefer vegetarian style, use vegetable broth and leave out the meat. Instead of lean ground beef, you can swap out and use turkey burger. The recipe also makes a lot of soup, so you can easily split the recipe in half, or make the full recipe and freeze half. The prep time is about 15 minutes. Put it in the crock pot and walk away. Ingredients: 1 lb lean ground beef 2 whole carrots, diced4 celery stalks, diced1 medium onion, diced2 cloves garlic, minced28 oz can crushed/chopped tomatoes2 cans (14.5 oz each) beef broth or fresh beef stock2 whole bay leaves1 tsp dried oregano1 tsp dried basilsalt and pepper to taste1 can (15 oz) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed1 can (15 oz) red kidney beans, drained and rinsed1 cup ditalini pasta (or similar shape), uncookedGrated Parmesan cheese and/or shredded mixture of Italian cheeses to topInstructions: Place in 6-quart slow cooker all of the above ingredients except beans, pasta, and cheese. Break up the raw ground beef with spoon. Stir. Cook on low heat for 7-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours. Towards the last 30 minutes of cooking add the drained beans and desired pasta. Season with more salt and pepper to taste. Cook until pasta is al denta. Serve and top finished bowls of soup with cheese. You may even want to add on the side hunks of toasted garlic bread.